i view this situation as one big lie that i repeated a lot of times. >> lance armstrong's lies. now that america has seen his confession, will the truth set him free? hostage crisis in the desert. americans still believed to be among the captives after a risky rescue attempt fails to free all of them. power struggle in the northeast. trees and power lines affected by snow, we have so much to talk

about this morning. boy, what a night. good morning, welcome to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. friday, january 18th. and, man, what a moment ma. for years, lance armstrong cheated, lance armstrong lied. but last night in big public fashion he came clean. in a gripping, surreal interview with oprah, he told oprah point blank he doped to win each of his seven consecutive tour de france titles. he systematically died about doping and ruthlessly attacked his accusers. the 90-minute interview began by cutting to the chase. simple yes or no questions. >> let's start with the questions that people around the world have been waiting for you to answer and for now i'd just like a yes or a no. >> okay. >> okay? this whole conversation, we have a lot of time, will be about the

details. yes or no? did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performances? >> yes. >> was one of those banned substances epo? >> yes. >> did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes. >> did you ever use any other banned substances, like testosterone, cortizone, or human growth hormone? >> yes. >> yes or no. in all seven of your tour de france victories, did you ever take banned substances or blood dope? >> yes. >> in your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the tour de france without doping? seven times in a row? >> not in my opinion. >> he did it. did all of it. disarmly frank. george howell is in austin,

texas this morning. george, the latest on this really fascinating interview. >> john, good morning. you know, all you can say is wow. right off the top of this interview, he confessed. and as a reporter who is here in austin some 12 years ago, covering his rise, this is something honestly i can say many people in this community thought in the back of his minds, even as he viciously attacked those who doubted him. we know it was lance armstrong who was living as he describes himself as one big lie. lance armstrong spent years trying to outrun allegations that he used performance enhancing substances to fuel his successful cycling career. that race is now over. >> it was a big deal to you? did it feel wrong? >> at the time? >> yeah. >> no. >> it didn't feel wrong? >> no.

scary. >> did you feel bad about it? >> no. even scarier. >> did you feel in any way that you were cheating? >> no. the scariest. >> reporter: after deck as of denials, the seven-time tour de france interview came clean in part one in a wide-ranging interview with oprah winfrey. >> i am deeply flawed. we all have our flaws, and if the magnifying glass is normally this big, i made it this big because of my actions and my words and my attitude and defiance. >> reporter: armstrong kept his emotions in check as he described years of cheating, lying and attacking those who would dare doubt him. he denied forcing teammates to dope, but did admit they may have felt pressure to follow his example. >> i was a bully in the sense, i

tried to control the narrative. if i didn't like what somebody said, and for whatever reasons in my own head, i viewed that as disloyal or a friend turning on you, i tried to control that and said that's a lie, they're liars. >> reporter: armstrong admits he was the one telling, in his words, one big lie, that he told over and over again. including in 2005 deposition. the hero to so many realizes this is probably too late for many people. >> they have every right to feel betrayed, and it's my fault. and i have -- i will spend the rest of my life, you know -- some people are gone forever. but i had spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people for the rest of my life. >> reporter: you know, what we learned in that interview, lance armstrong described himself as a

flawed character and described himself as a bully, and it's very interesting dichotomy of being a jerk on one hand, but also a humanitarian. the work that he did. the good work he did for cancer research. but years and years of denials. years and years of lying, and personally as an austin guy, it's disappointing. >> he says he cheated and he didn't think it was wrong at the time. fascinating. what is next for lance armstrong? >> reporter: well, you know, it will -- this is certainly a tough hit for his image, and moving forward, there will certainly very reichley be lawsuit -- likely be lawsuits. groups want their money back. loss of sponsorship, nike, answer heyser bush. and think about the u.s. postal service. there are reports that there are discussions about how much money lance armstrong will pay back for the sponsorship he got from

them. john. >> george howell live in austin. a lot of people talking about it there and all over the country. so lance armstrong says he has spoken to one of the people he called a liar. one of the people he attacked. 16 years ago betsy andreu and her then fiance, while armstrong was fighting cancer, said they heard armstrong rattle off to his doctor a host of drugs including human growth hormone. >> did you deny what betsy andreu said in the hospital is a lie? >> yes. >> and betsy says that it ruined her brother's cycling career for

telling the truth -- i think it was her fiance's cycling career. this is a guy who lied for years, cheated for years, attacked for years, and last night in one 90-minute interview, he says, yeah, i lied, i cheated, i'm really sorry. so surreal. felt like outer space to me. >> didn't feel like he was flip. i feel like he repeatedly admitted what he did was wrong. i didn't have that sense of him being flip ant aboant about it. he said i'm not sure this is an acceptable answer, but that's like saying we have air in our tires, or we have to have water in our bottles. when he was asked specifically about the doping. again, the whole culture this is what we do. and in order to succeed, in order to be able to win this is what we have to do. and so i thought it was very matter of fact.

all the answering was very matter of fact. >> he was matter of fact, but the lying and cheating was much more than that. systemic, and he hurt a lot of people and we're hearing from those people today, which is simply fascinating. in the next hour, we'll talk to a pioneer of american cycling, john eustice. he is a tour de france champion, one of the first americans to break into the european tour. and breaking down the case again against lance armstrong. "the world according to lance armstrong," saturday night, 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> i'm curious about the lawsuits that are coming. she'll talk to him about that next. nine minutes past the hour. turning to the ongoing hostage standoff in algeria. british prime minister david cameron is warning there could be bad news ahead.

a number of unknown hostages are still being held. a number of people are dead after algerian forces fired on suvs leaving the gas plant. secretary of state hillary clinton said this. this incident will be resolved. we hope with a minimum loss of life. but when you deal with these relentless terrorists, life is not in any way precious to them. matthew chance is joining us from london with the latest details. matthew, reports that the algerian military attempted to rescue hostages late thursday night, they are saying the raid was over, britain is saying the crisis continues. what happened? where do we stand right now? >> it all sorts of feeds into the sense of confusion that there is surrounding this whole incident and surrounding the decision by the algerians to go in, try to rescue the hostages and end the situation without consulting the white house or any other leaders of countries involved here in britain. perhaps as many as 20 british

nationals taken hostage. that figure is yet to be confirmed. and david cameron, the british prime minister appeared on british television, visibly angry that he was not consulted before the alli iegerian operat went ahead. and he took the opportunity on national media last night to talk about how the country should be prepared for more bad news. already at least one british national confirmed dead. others from other countries. the expectation is that death toll will rise. and it does seem, according to the algerians, that their military -- at least the military elements of their operation has come to an end and shifted more to a search operation there are reports that there may still be militants and hostages inside that gas plant in the remote desert in algeria. again, very difficult to get a clear picture. we're expecting a statement to the british parliament within the next 45 minutes. hopefully we'll have clarity.

>> matthew chance in london, thank you very much. 1 minutes past the hour. a dangerous winter snow dumping heavy rain, heavy snow across the deep south, all the way to the washington, d.c. area. half a foot of heavy snow snapped power lines and rains pushed rivers and streams over the banks and triggered dangerous mudslides like this one at a state park in north carolina. jennifer delgado is tracking the winter storm threat for us. hey, jennifer. >> hi, john. you're right. good news, the storm system is out of here. look at the snowfall totals. locations across virginia. 6 inches of snowfall in addition to heavy rainfall. and that's why you saw the video of the landslide coming in out of north carolina. we had reports unconfirmed of more than a foot of snow through parts of virginia. things quieter than yesterday. yesterday we had the snow, we had the rain, but here is the storm system pulling away. a chance for snow working through areas, including

wisconsin. overall, interstate 95, washington, d.c., new york, you will be looking nice today and we certainly need a break from all of the precipitation and we're talking warm temperatures through parts of the central plains. northern plains, temperatures will run 15 degrees above average. out in the west, for areas including washington, as well as oregon, you will deal with fog around in some of the locations up to noon. that will lead to travel delays, warm temperatures for the afternoon. really not looking so bad at all. 60s to the south and 46 for albuerquerque. john, it's friday. so the weather is looking better. so this is good timing. >> it's friday. i'll grant you that. a good thing in and of itself. 13 minutes past the hour. more questions and not many answers in the continuing saga of manti te'o. the latest twist in the fake girlfriend hoax, that's coming up. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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welcome back to "early start." the mystery deepens about whether notre dame star football player manti te'o was victim of an elaborate hoax or helped perpetrate it. by now you know the story that we all wanted to believe. te'o leading the fighting irish to the national championship game by the memory of his dead girlfriend. the girlfriend turned out to be an interne internet invention or something in his own head. te'o has not done any interviews. this story not going away. any sense he will be forced to come out and give us an explanation? >> well, the pressure will continue to build, zoraida. you can't force somebody to talk. however, he is going to receive a lot of pressure and some of the pressure will build from here at the university. and up until now, the university has backed him 100%, saying they

believe he was a victim in this. however, part of the deal for the university of notre dame, not to come forward with this after december 26th. because they said, all right, this is your deal. you come out when are you ready at the appropriate time, but there was an understanding that he will would come out and make this public and he hasn't done it yet, as that time continues to build up, the pressure will build from the university for him to come clean. >> "sports illustrated" reporter peter hamill released an interview that he did with te'o last year. can we glean any information about what he knew or didn't know about this supposed girlfriend? i read it in detail. we've been discussing it for hours. what do you take away from him? >> it is fascinating, specifically because he's asking te'o about his girlfriend and specifics, and te'o doesn't know the answers. specific until one section,

asking him about what her major is in school, when she graduated, and fumbling back with 2011, 2010, 2011. wasn't sure. he will go double check. fast naturing in retrospect it might have been a red flag something was amiss here. because of manti te'o's persona, a red flag didn't come up from this reporter. he didn't call stanford to see if she graduated or this might have started unraveling a lot earlier. >> if you continue reading, he talks about some of the things he attempted to do, and i'm talking about the reporter here in order to find background information, but really difficult for him to do so, so he just started removing things from the article. here is my next question. what about te'o's nfl prospects? does this put him in jeopardy at all? >> the nfl has a rich history of giving people with less than stellar backgrounds opportunity

on the field. let's be honest this is a business. if a team believes he will perform on the field, the off the field thing will be taken way grain of salt. however, one of the things that nfl teams absolutely do is look at the character of a player, especially first rounders, investing millions of dollars in these individuals and if they have the uh-oh feeling if you will with a player, they will not take him. he may drop in the draft, but someone will take him. i'm sure, roll the dice. >> i'm sure. he's a great football player. >> a friend of te'o's involved in the hoax "us weekly" says he auditioned for the voice. i have a hard time with the name. >> we don't know if he is the

mastermind behind this. but things pointing in his direction, and the other thing pops up, he apparently auditions for "the voice" and had an elaborate story about a band in a horrible car accident, the same thing we heard with manti te'o's girlfriend. more fodder and more -- you know, adds another wrinkle into this very complicated and bizarre story. >> ted what do we know about his relationship with manti te'o, though? >> well, we're not sure, but deadspin apparently believed in the original article that there was a connection, that they knew each other, but, again, we don't know that the friend is the mastermind behind it. one of the moving pieces and the problem here too. there really isn't a law enforcement investigation going on in this, so we may not know all of the abcs here unless manti te'o does come forward and answers very specific questions

about all of this. and when that will happen, if that will happen, we just don't know. >> you know what? notre dame said when they came out, released their statement, they said there was an ongoing investigation. do you know what type of investigation that is? >> they investigator out of the gate. they forwarded what they have to authorities. but we don't know where that investigation is going. at this point, not a criminal investigation. quite frankly, no crime at all was committed. yeah. >> absolutely true. ted rowlands live in south bend, indiana, thank you so much. the plot thickens. >> we have to take a break from the te'o story to talk about lance armstrong. 22 minutes after the hour. wall street has waited years for

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minding your business. u.s. stocks mixed ahead of the opening bell. >> a big day for the markets yesterday. christine with the details. >> a nice day if you are a stock investor. the best day, best levels for the s & p 500 since the financial crisis. five years now where the stock market has been coming back and if you look at the stock market, s & p 500 since february 2009, you can see the s & p 500 has doubled. remember the dark days at the bottom in 2009, people bailing out like crazy? that was the absolute time to get back in. what pushed markets up yesterday? good news on the housing market. new home sales, building is coming back in housing, look, a

long way to go. but coming back and jobs. jobless claims, five-year low that pushed stocks to a five-year high. quickly, investors are starting to believe it finally after being pessimistic all of last year. investors have poured record money into stocks for the first nine days of the year. $8 billion. see the spike on the right. the rally you all missed. hedge funds and individual investors have been cautious over the past year, so they missed much of this. at the beginning of the year, after the move people really moving. i will be watching intel today. they had disappointing earnings report after hours. and its profit fell sharply. morgan stanley and general electric this morning. >> didn't realize so much money going back into the market. >> after doubles, people are convinced. that's the twa works, right? 27 minutes past the hour. we knew lance armstrong was

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lance armstrong's public confession. now that people have seen it, can america forgive the disgraced cycling legend? unspeakable cruelty. police catch the man they say was caught on camera, tossing a woman onto the subway tracks. look at that. >> and shooting from the hip, new jersey's outspoken governor chris christie takes on the nra over the latest ad campaign. interesting words from the new jersey governor. welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. 31 minutes past the hour. the past comes back to haunt lance armstrong, admitting he doped after years of denying it. in last night's no holds barred interview, he came clean, saying doped to win each of his seven tour de france titles, but at the time he didn't consider it cheating. >> i had this exercise -- i kept hearing, you know -- >> that you were a cheat. >> i'm a cheat, i'm a cheater.

and i looked up the definition of cheat. >> yes. >> and the definition to cheat is to gain advantage on a rival or foe. i didn't feel it that way. i viewed it as a level playing field. >> george howell in armstrong's home city of austin, texas. i got to tell you, looking up the word cheating and the way he described it, a lot of people had a problem with that. he described denial after denial as one big lie. >> reporter: zoraida, it was fascinating to listen to the interview, to listen to a person so many people have looked up to, for so many years, in the interview, lance armstrong basically said he got caught up in the momentum, that he didn't realize how big of a character he had become or how big of an impact that lie would have on the people around him. on cancer survivors, on cyclists who wanted to follow in his

lead, and one other part was interesting. when he described himself as a jerk on one hand, but a humanitarian on the other hand. a person who was very big, very instrumental on cancer research. this is what we're left with. years and years of lies. >> sometimes the bigger spotlight hangs on the word jerk. he said he did not cheat during his later comeback. really difficult. he doesn't have a lot of credibility at this point. >> and even acknowledged in the interview, he might have gotten away with doping had it not been for that comeback where he placed third and 23rd. it red flags when he couldn't duplicate the performance. >> when you placed third in

2009, did you not dope? >> no, and the biological passport was in place, and it was -- >> does that include blood transfusions? >> absolutely many. >> you didn't do a blood transfusion in 2009, no doping or blood transfusions in 2010? >> 2009 and 2010. those were the two years i did the tour. absolutely not. >> reporter: you know, so after that, we found that lance really changeded after the cancer diagnosis, he changeded his attitude about the way he would perform and live his life to try to win. >> you know, george, a lot of people watched this interview they wanted to hear did you dope, did you not dope? a series of questions at the top, yes or no? we heard that. another big question, why did you do it? what did he respond to that?

>> reporter: that goes back to what i was saying. the way he chose to live his life after the cancer diagnosis. he decided in his own words, he wanted to live and win at all costs. do whatever it took to win at all costs. doping was part of that, and he indicated that had he not been doping, he probably wouldn't have won the tour de france seven times. he said it was something necessary. something that was common place. something that people did. he did. he didn't mention any names, but he did admit that years and years of doping, that's what led him to win. >> george howell, live for us. >> i was a competitor, but i wasn't a fierce competitor. and in an odd way, that process turned me into a person that was going -- it was truly win at all costs. when i was diagnosed, i said i had do anything i have toto

survive. >> reporter: so we really got some insight into lance armstrong for the last 13, 14 years. a person who started inspiring a lot of people, but doing it deceptively, using performance-enhancing drugs and finally after years of denying and many people questioning it, we hear a confession from his own words, zoraida. >> absolutely. george howell live in austin, texas. thank you very much. appreciate it. i know for you -- let's talk about this person. we'll talk to a pioneer of american cycling, john eustice, one of the first to break into european pro cycling. he knows him, and this whole concept of doping, how prevalent is it, all that. breaking down the kanscase against armstrong. the constant chatter that dogged armstrong for years.

watch "the world according to lance armstrong" saturday night, 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> we heard lance armstrong give what he believed his definition of cheating was. an advantage that other people don't have. that's how it was okay. i looked it up on dictionary.com. whe it says to defraud and swindle, to deceive, to violate rules and regulations, a person who acts dishonestly. that seems to be a more accurate definition of cheating. he seems to have picked an awfully convenient definition of cheating. >> if you would have read that to him, if he would have said yes to all of those things? i think his answer would have been yes, i defrauded people, yes, i lied, yes, my character is sequentiquestionable. i for one appreciated the fact that he came out and admitted it

and admitted he hurt a lot of people along the way. >> 37 minutes past the hour. >> police have arrested a man who brutally attacked a woman on a subway platform. the video is difficult to watch. the man asked for a lighter tuesday afternoon. momentarily backed off and then came at her. pumping her and grabbing her by the ankles and throwing her on the subway tracks. the woman suffered only bunches and bruises. >> good gracious. unbelievable video. a portland teenager who killed his girlfriend is going to prison as part of a plea deal. parish boneti will spend 18 years behind bars. no everyone is happy. defense lawyers revealed it was their decision, not their client's to delay revealing the location of his girlfriend's dead body. listen to this. >> we want the family to

understand that that was not mr. beneti's decision. >> for four months, they knew where she was, and she lay-in two feet of dirt decomposing and they knew where she was and wouldn't tell us? that is sick. >> oh, my goodness. the family spent several weeks desperately searching for 14-year-old girl's body. and the nra in for a fight with president obama's gun control proposal. new jersey governor chris christie called the nra's reprehensible. >> don't be dragging people's children into this, it's wrong and it demeans them and makes them less of a valid, trusted source of information on the real issues. >> the nra ad calls the

president an elitist hypocrite for opposing their idea of armed guards in every school when his kids are protected by armed guards. people in washington pulling extra shifts this weekend. getting ready for inauguration day on monday. leave report, just ahead. clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've got nine grams of protein. that's three times more than me! [ female announcer ] ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. campbell's has 24 new soups that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

washington, d.c., our nation's capital. 49 degrees right now. it will go down to 36. we will be there monday for the inauguration. m monday at noon it happens, we'll be on tv at 5:00 a.m. hundreds will be cheering us on, as well as the president. athena jones has the latest. good morning, athena. give us the goods.

what events can we look forward to here? >> good morning. it kicks off this morning with a national day of service. a series of public service events held across the area, including at the national mall. and sunday is the day, we have the official swearing in. semi private ceremony at the white house. we'll see video of that. and monday, kicks off with a church service at st. john's church across lafayette park from the white house. and hundreds of people are expected, singing performances from people like james taylor, kelly clarkson and beyonce, followed by the parade. and it doesn't wrap up on monday. there is a prayer service on tuesday morning. a lot of folks wondering about the weather. quite cold this morning. but the forecast for monday is a low of 25, so it might be very, very chilly early on in that day, and a high of 40, which is

around about the average for presidential inauguration days. in recent years. >> work on the weather for us, apt athena, make it warmer for monday morning. on twitter, i don't know if you noticed i'm a fashionista, and i follow a lot of people in the fashion world. a moment, it went nuts, because michelle obama changed her hair. >> reporter: that's right. we know the first lady gets a lot of attention for her wardrobe. we don't know what she's going to wear on inauguration day sunday or monday, but we know from the twitter account that the first lady's office launched yesterday she has a new haircut. she has bang es now. i wonder if this will start a trend. we'll have to see. back to you. >> we'll see you monday. are bangs a big deal?

>> kate middleton got them in london. i suppose she started the trend. it's very difficult to have bangs if you have curly hair. a lot more work. i was surprised by that move, actually. >> thank you for helping me learn about that. >> i know you are big on twitter, but the fashionista thing? > "early start" live from washington starting at 5:00 eastern time on monday morning. >> former south carolina governor mark sanford speaking out. running for the congressional seat he held in the late 1990s. his career thought to be over in 2009 when he admitted to an extramarital affair while he was governor and last night on piers morgan, sanford said he is asking south carolina voters for forgiveness. >> there is an amazing reservoir of human grace out there. a reservoir of god's grace that

each of us have to access. >> the pictures are you looking at are the woman from argentina that he had an affair. i believe they are now engaged. a moment serena williams would probably like to forget, coming up. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

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49 minutes past the hour.

let's get you up to date. >> top story, following lance armstrong. confirming charges against him that he has for years denied, that he used performance enhancing drugs throughout his career, including each of his seven tour de france wins. coming clean after years of denials. some of what he told oprah winfrey last night. >> you said to me earlier, you don't think it was possible to win without doping. >> not in that generation. i'm not here to talk about others. it's been well documented. i didn't invent the culture, but i didn't try to stop the culture. that's my mistake. and that's what i have to be sorry for. and the sport is now paying the price because of that. i am sorry for that. >> armstrong called the situation one big lie i repeated a lot of times. bizarre story out of michigan. a man accused of kidnapping and

raping a woman from central michigan university was age ble get one last facebook post out before police shot him. eric ramsey led police on a bizarre chase after he abducted a college student at gunpoint, raped her, set a house on fire, then stole a flat bed truck and rammed three police cars. most people think of the tsa, transportation security administration as airport security. but their specialized unit known as the vipr team says train stations are difficult to secure. their presence is to be a difficul deterrent for anyone thinking to do harm. a difficult go downunder at the australia open. she hit herself in the face with a tennis racket. submitting her lip and drawing blood. she went on to win the match.

>> that a girl. >> and now she has to worry not so much about the next opponent. but the powerful law of threes. >> i would be watching everything. >> and she wins. >> yo know how hard she swings that racket too. >> she is really, really good. >> yeah, she is. thousands spending a cold night without power down south in the middle of a winter storm dumping heavy snow and rain across the region from the carolinas as far south as birmingham. jennifer delgado tracking the winter storm threat for us. >> hi, guys. we showed the video of the snow. it will still be cool for parts of alabama, as well as parts of the mid-atlantic. be careful on the roadways, because certainly there are going to be some freezing spots out there. as we show you snowfall totals, look at that 6 inches in parts of virginia and some locations, we're hearing reports of a foot of snow in some of the higher elevations. right now, things are a lot

quieter. there is the storm system making its way toward the east. look how quiet for parts of the mid-atlantic, up and down interstate 95. nice and quiet. we'll see snow working into areas, including wisconsin as we go through the day. and really starts to kick up as we go into tomorrow. wider view, what will be happening. a ridge of high pressure building back in. that's good. dry for many areas dealing with flooding. temperatures across the central plains from the north to the south, 15 degrees above arrive. fog for parts of the pacific northwest, seattle, those regions, dense fog and freezing fog up until noon pacific time. look at some of these temperatures out there. for today, talking 50s as well as 60s. kansas city, 56 for you. in addition to warm temperatu temperatures, look at the delays. st. louis and chicago. and i leave with you this incredible video out of north carolina. we have to get this in. rare treat.

listen. that's right, thundersnow. popped up in north carolina. very rare treat there, john, zoraida. >> look at that. >> a treat. >> all right, jennifer delgado. thank you very much. 53 minutes after the hour. love not actually. the latest internet craze sparked by the manti te'o fake girlfriend hoax, next. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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welcome back to "early start." i'm sfwlor azoraida sambolin wi

berman. >> first there was tebowing and capper nicking, now there is te'o'ing. cruel or not this is how it goes. what you do, you put your arm around your invisible girlfriend. a tumblr blog. and here is a mockup of the president doing it, and the last te'o in paris. and some people are making a really complicated joke about clint eastwood, the fact that he was speaking to an empty chair, an early version of te'o'ing. jon stewart missed the news of the day and came to work with a heavy heart. take a look. >> you didn't see it. i don't -- i don't want to bring the room down. my mind has been elsewhere. my girlfriend, who totally

exists, that's her. you don't know her. is going through a tough time. she died. and then -- and then also fell off a cliff of leukemia. so it's -- it's a tough day to be here for me. but i'm going to do it. i'm going to do it. her last tweet to me was the show must go o-o-o-n-n! #thump. >> you knew. you knew he wouldn't let it go. >> "early start" continues right now.

lance armstrong's confession. will he be forgiven? hostage crisis in the desert. >> and power struggle in the southeast. friday, january 18th, 6:00 a.m. in the east. you know we'll start with lance armstrong. for years, he cheated. for years he lied about it, and all the while winning the admiration of millions of fans. last night, he came clean. the distraces offed cycling legend told oprah winfrey he doped every single time to win his seven tour de france titles. he systemically lied and then

ruthlessly attacked his accusers. the interview began with a series of yes or no questions. >> let's start with the questions that people around the world have been waiting for you to answer. and i would like a yes or a no. the whole conversation will be about the details. yes or no, did you take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes. >> yes or no, was one of those banned substances epo? >> yes. >> did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes. >> did you ever use any other banned substances like testosterone, cortizone, human growth hormone? >> yes. >> yes or no, in all seven of your tour de france victories, did you ever take banned

substances or blood dope? >> yes. >> in your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the tour de france without doping seven times in a row? >> not in my opinion. >> i got to tell you, i watched it, i read it, and i'm hanging on to every word. george howell is in austin, texas. a city that you call home. what are people saying about this interview? >> zoraida, fascinating, insightful, disappointing. you know, this is a person who i remember what it was like covering lance some 12 years ago when he was coming along. it was electric in the city. he inspired people, not only as an athlete, but as a cancer survivor and came years of more winning, but also years of lies and deceit and now this is -- excuse me. this is what we're left with. a lot of people here had mix

feelings for lance. watching the interview was tough for a lot of people. >> i can only imagine. lance armstrong's seven wins, and he did not admit to doping during his comeback. he will have a hard time with credibility, isn't he? >> reporter: well, fair to say, yes. and it was interesting in the interview, he even indicated that he might have gotten away with it, had it not been for the come back, back out cycling, he couldn't duplicate the same performance when he was doping. take a listen to what he said during the interview. >> so when you placed third in 2009, you did not dope? >> again, the biological passport was in place, and it was -- >> does that include blood transfusions? >> absolutely. >> you did not do a blood transfusion in 2009. >> absolutely not. >> no doping or blood

transfusions in 2010? >> 2009 or 2010. the two years i did the tour. absolutely not. >> reporter: he was adamant about that, that he didn't dope during those years, but, again, says it was clear that was a red flag, one of the things that raised suspicion, zoraida. >> and we played in the beginning the questions that she asked. everybody wanted to know that everybody answered yes to. did you use this, do that? the other big question that people wanted to know, why he did it. what did he tell oprah? >> reporter: well, he described himself as sort of a win at all cost character and this is the case, especially after his cancer diagnosis. he would do whatever it took to survive. when it came to his performance as a cyclist was doping. something that was common place, something that needed to be done in order to perform the way he expected to perform. he described himself as someone who wanted to control the

narrative in all cases. he wanted to control the ability to win and found more excitement in the process of preparing for races than the actual win. really it was more about getting ready and controlling the process for him, zoraida. >> george howell, live in austin, thank you very much. >> a quick break from lance armstrong. it is fascinating. we want to go straight away to britain, david cameron is speaking about the hostage crisis in algeria, as we know, there was a raid where some hostages were free, and some were killed. we need to learn more details. let's listen. >> assist them with evacuation plans if needed. mr. speaker, we need to be absolutely clear whose fault this is. it's the terrorist who's are responsible for this attack for the loss of life. and the action of these extremists can never be justified. we'll be resolute in our

determination to fight terrorism and stand with the algerian government who have paid a heavy rice fighting against a savage terrorist campaign this is a continuing situation and we'll do our best to keep parliament and the public updated. we hope to reach a conclusion shortly. and there will be a moment to learn, and i commend the statement to the house. >> mr. speaker, can i stant by saying with this statement. on behalf of the opposition, that the government has our full support. >> british prime minister david cameron talking about the hostage crisis in algeria. a raid where some hostages freed and some hostages killed. a few more details about how some managed to escape. forgive me for reading off my computer here. some actually disguised themselves as part of a catering company to sneak out during moments of chaos and managed to get through. one french national hid under a

bed for more than 40 hours. a terrifying situation there. david cameron, who has expressed some regret that the british government wassan uninformed of the hostage raid to free them before it happened. >> we're still uncertain how many american hostages could be in captivity. trying to get answers to those questions for you. leave report coming up shortly. let's get back to lance armstrong. a story we're talking about since the interview last night. john eustice, cycling analyst and he called lance armstrong's first tour de france victory. let me ask you off the bat what did you hear last night? >> i hear a lance armstrong trying to come to terms with the new phase in his life. you will never get a weepy i'm sorry emotion out of lance armstrong. it's not going to happen.

>> why? because of his personality? >> that's what he is, a tough, hard guy. for lance, that was pretty good for the way i know him. but i think he made his best effort to put the truth out there. he admitted, and tried to explain and admitted his own doping, the culture of not only cycling, but professional sports, and i think not what everybody wants, and a fairly brave first effort. >> he tried to talk about the doping culture in cycling. he said at the time he did not feel what he was doing was actually cheating. let's listen to that. >> i had this exercise, because i kept hearing i was a cheat, i'm a cheater. and i looked up the definition of cheat. >> yes. >> and the definition of cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe that they don't have. and i didn't view it that way.

i viewed it as -- as a level playing field. >> so the definition i found said breaking the rules. it's clear he broke the rules, but he has a little bit definition. was it happening all over the place? >> the same in any professional sport. baseball players use amphetamines, football players, painkillers and hgh. these pro athletes look at this as tools of the trade. they say this is what we need to do to compete at this level. at that time -- remember, cycling is old. 19th century sport. and the first 60 years of existence, the idea of stimulants and painkillers as illegal or something wrong was not even considered, as many other old sports like that. and what happened, the mid '80s and mid '90s when he began to do it, 1995 is when he started. this drug hit the market called

epo, so powerful, so effective, it was like an infection on this microsociety. and it came to a point where you either had to use it or basically not even pin on your number. >> that was the impression he had given. you said something on wednesday. you were expecting armstrong to blow the lid off of doping in cycling. do you think he did that last night? >> not at all. he talked about himself. >> why do you think he didn't? >> i think he's holding it back as negotiation with the world anti doping association. i any he wants to do it, i think he can do it. he can be -- despite his faults, he has great qualities as well. it's the iceberg personality. he can open up the world, not just of cycling, but international sport, olympic sport, professional sport and showing everyone how it's done. but i believe he wants something in return for that. he wants to be able to compete.

and i believe if he does get that, he will go in, talk about networks and the next part of the story, the money behind it, how that worked. that's the real story. >> and investigators want to know about that. three parts of this. the cheating, lying, and the ruthless attacks of people calling him out on it for years. one of these people, betsy andreu, the fiance and sister of cyclists and lance armstrong went after her hard. oprah asked him about this last night. let's listen. >> was betsy telling the truth about the indiana hospital? overhearing you in 1996? >> i'm not going to take that on, i'm laying down on that one. >> was betsy lying? >> i'm just not -- i'm going to put that one down. she asked me, and i asked her not to talk about the details of

the call. it was a confidential personal conversation. >> so i guess my question to you is the cycling community -- the cycling community, is he willing to forgive these attacks and how hard he was on so many people? >> the sicycling community is outraged. they hate what he's done. he is excellent villian, lance, like barry bonds, a good target, he has created this corruption against him. they have been quite accurate about their analysis, and they have created a giant following of lance haters if you will, not just them, but across the board, the community feels betrayed. >> has he done enough to fix that? >> i don't think he ever will.

what he can do, again, he can be an influence. if this goes right and everyone plays the proper way and realizes he is a powerful figure, they can do something. be a key factor and change the world of sport and the way it works. that i think will be his legacy. what he wants to be his legacy going forward. >> john eustice, we appreciate having you. >> we hope you will come back as we have more revelations. breaking down the case against lance armstrong, tomorrow night, the constant doping chatter that dogged armstrong for years. watch "the world according to lance armstrong" 10:00 p.m. eastern. dangerous winter storm hitting a big chunk of the country. dumping heavy rain, heavy snow, all the way to the washington, d.c. area, where they are preparing for the inauguration. states as far south as mississippi and alabama got

close to half a foot of snow. snapped power lines and pushed rivers and streams over their banks. this tore through a state park in north carolina. jennifer delgado tracking all of this for us. >> hi, guys. the storm system a tough one. causing flog problems and snow totals in some locations up to 6 inches like in virginia and parts of north carolina. on the radar, we're nice and quiet. that storm system pulling away from the east coast. that means the northeast. new england, down toward the south. we are going to got a break from bad weather. snow arriving in parts of wisconsin, that gets in later in the day. now, while we're dry on the radar, temperatures are very close to freezing or below freezing for many parts that dealt with this precipitation yesterday. that means you are missing the potential for black ice out there. we are going to warm very nicely today. look at temperatures in the 50s. minneapolis, 39. denver, 56. temperatures running 15 degrees

above average for parts of the central plains. high pressure will build back in. but one problem we are watching, the pacific northwest. fog affecting parts of washington, as well as for areas like oregon. there is the snow we talked about, and developing to the north, as we go through today and tomorrow. we also want to point out, we will have the official swearing in ceremony forecast coming up and it looks like there might be a chance of snow. i'll let you know more about that in a moment. remember, back in 2009, cold during the public swearing in. 28 degrees. >> bundle up. jennifer delgado, thank you very much. you caught us hanging john eustice to hang tight. he will stay with us. more on the continuing saga of manti te'o. latest twist on the fake girlfriend hoax, coming up.

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we're waiting to hear anything from manti te'o on his heartbreaking story that gripped the nation, but turned out to be false. no girlfriend whose memory was said to fuel his excellence on the football field and many questions still to be answered in this bizarre story. chief among them, was te'o the victim of an elaborate hoax was or he part of the? ted rowlands live from south bend, inn, with the latest. >> reporter: the pressure continues to build on manti te'o. a lot of people would love for him to answer questions. some of the pressure in the next few days will come from the university. part of the deal that notre dame brokered, we won't tell your story. you tell your stare when you want to, at the appropriate time, after the national championship game. well, it's time in their eyes, and they were anticipating he would say something yesterday or today. that doesn't appear to be on the

schedule. at least publicly, apparently was going to do an espn interview. espn tweeted it was coming yesterday, but they tweeted the interview has been canceled. pressure building from the university, that obviously has backed him until this point, but if he doesn't come clean, you will see them feeling slighted by that and build on that pressure. >> and a transcript from an interview he did with te'o at the beginning of the year, looking at the whole -- the whole supposed tragedy of his girlfriend. a lot of us doing a forensic analysis of exact words he used what are we learning here? >> fascinating in hindsight to go back and look at this. innocuous questions about his girlfriend, really. when did she graduate, what was her major? and you see -- if you read the

transcripts, a little bit of the there. a little segment. and you see on your screen, te'o doesn't know the answers to the questions. he says i can go back and check. the reason he didn't know likely, it wasn't discussed with the fictitious girlfriend or wasn't discussing anything with anybody. that's the key. was it that te'o didn't know because he hadn't gotten information from this person, or was the whole thing false and was he in on it? fascinating to look at the transcript. >> ted rowlands thank you very much. >> so many questions. hopefully he will talk and enlighten us. the factors that helped move stocks to the highest level since the financial crisis.

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welcome back to "early start." minding your business. u.s. stock futures trading mixes. big day for corporate earnings. >> big day for the markets yesterday. christine with details. >> five-year high for s & p 500. dow a nice day as well. a housing number that was good. and jobless claims, five-year low, get it? five-year high for stocks, five-year low for jobless claims. the s & p has doubled since february 2009. rook at the chart. doubled. at the beginning, the whole world was saying, oh, boy. we got to get out of stocks, exactly the right time to get into stocks, up, up, up ever

since then. housing market doing better. adding to american growth. and housing prices rising, home sales are rising, mortgage rates are very, very low, and a lot of investors with cash are investing, and the job situation, slowly, slowly improving. like to see it better, but it's -- you know, coming along, that's the best i can say about it. morgan stanley and g.e. earnings this morning, so that will be incredibly important for the direction of stocks today, and we'll also be watching intel. intel shares likely to be down, they were down after the bell today. intel, a report that was pretty disappointing from intel. investors meantime, pouring money into the stock market. investors, since doubling over the past five years, they are convinced. a chart shows you how much money investors are putting into stock mutual funds. very far right. now convinced at the beginning

part of the yore. >> five-year highs, that's what it feels like around here what's the one thing we need to know about your over? >> fourth quarter of our recovery. that's the way the outgoing treasury secretary tim geithner put it. in basketball terms, fourth quarter of recovery. in europe, they are more like in the second quarter. >> how long it will last? will it go to overtime. >> if they blow the whole debt ceiling, is that a technical foul? 27 minutes after the hour. we knew lance armstrong was confessing something. it is something different to see and hear him do it. more of that, coming up. 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation

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lance armstrong's public confession. now that the people have seen it, can america forgive the disgraced cycling great? man versus shark. rescuers pull a man out of water after a rescue off a hawaii beach. chris christie takes on the nra over its latest ad campaign. welcome back to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. 30 minutes past the hour. lance armstrong day. no other way to say it sports world reacting to the doping admission. the international olympic committee released a statement, saying there can be no place for doping in sport and the ioc unreserveedly condemned the actions of lance armstrong and all those who seek an unfair advantage against their fellow competitors by taking drugs. in last night's interview with oprah winfrey, armstrong came clean, saying he doped to win in each and every one of the seven

tour de france titles, at the time, he didn't consider it cheating. >> i had this exercise, because i kept hearing, you know -- >> that you are a cheat. >> i'm a drug cheat, a cheat, a cheater. and i went in, looked up the definition of cheat. >> yes. >> and the definition is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe that they don't have. and didn't view it that way. i viewed it as a level playing field. >> he's in the home city of austin, texas. george, there is denial after denial after denial. he says it's one big life. >> reporter: john, right off the top of this interview, confesses and really here in austin, in his hometown, many people suspected in the back of their minds. after years and years of him viciously denying that he had been cheating, now he learned

that is exactly what he would be doing when he won the tour de france seven times. lance armstrong spent years trying to outrun allegations that he used performance enhancing substances to fuel his successful cycling career. that race is now over. >> was it a big deal to you? did it feel wrong? >> at the time? >> um-hum. >> no. >> at the time it did not feel wrong? >> no. scary. >> did you feel bad about it? >> no. even scarier. >> did you feel in any way that you were cheating? >> no. the scariest. >> reporter: after decades of denials, the seven tour de france winner came clean in part one in a wide ranging interview with oprah winfrey. >> i am flawed, deeply flawed.

we all have our flaws, and if the magnifying glass is normally this big, i made it this big because of my actions and because of my words and because of my attitude and defiance. >> reporter: armstrong kept his emotions in check as he described years of cheating, lying, and attacking those who would dare doubt him. he denied forcing teammates to dope but admitted they may have felt pressure to follow his example. >> i was any bully in the sense that i tried to control the narrative and if i didn't like what somebody said, and for wav whatever reasons in my own head, i viewed that as disloyal, or a friend turning on you, i tried to say that was a lie, they are liars. >> reporter: armstrong now admits in his words he was telling one big lie he told over and over again. including in this 2005 deposition.

the hero to so many believes his confession is probably too late for many people. >> they have every right to feel de-tr betrayed, and it's my fault. and i had spend the rest of my life -- some people are gone forever, but i will spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people. for the rest of my life. >> reporter: you know, we've heard a lot of reaction to that interview. a new statement from the ioc, international olympic community saying "we now urge armstrong to present all of the evidence he has to the appropriate anti doping authorities so that we can bring an end to the dark episode and move forward, stronger and clean erer. that is the ioc. same body that asked armstrong to return the bronze medal. that process is under way. >> will he provide the

information? we will see. so what did armstrong use exactly? he told winfrey he took what he called oxygen-boosting drugs that helped boost performance and endurance. here is him talking about his cocktail. >> my cocktail so to speak was only epo, but not a lot. transfusions and testosterone, which in a weird way i almost justified with my history of testicular cancer and surely i'm running low. >> blood doping, testosterone, human growth hormone, used it all. >> talking about the details and the blood transfusions, when did it happen? during the time you were cycling? did you take a break to go do this? details were shocking and surprising, and he tried to skirt around some of them. but he said, wait a minute,

exactly when? how did you do this? a fascinating thing. the culture, john eustice, two-time cycling champion. eventually he expected them to blow the lid off of this. but maybe that's what he's holding back to use it in the future so he can compete it again. i don't know how you feel about this, or people will feel about this, but to change the culture i think would be great to do. in sports in general. the cheaters that you have a real problem with defining the whole cheating. >> we might have to break up over this whole lance armstrong story here. if he wants to make the rest of his life speaking out against cheating, speaking out against taking drugs in sports. >> you never want to see him compete again, right? >> his career is over. i don't care if he runs triathlons in the senior circuit. but if he wants to spend the rest of his life talking about breaking the rules and cheating and why not to use performance-enhancing drugs, that would be phenomenal for

everyone, for kids, for sports, and i would applaud that. >> and the restitution, the people he blamed, all the lawsuits. how do you make that right? >> that would be nice too. >> that he would be wonderful. >> breaking down the case against lance armstrong. at 10:00 eastern, a look at the constant doping chatter that dogged armstrong for years. watch "the world according to lance armstrong" saturday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern. now to the ongoing hostage standoff in algeria. state radio reports that the military raid is still ongoing. several people are dead, but we don't know exactly who. after algerian forces fired on suvs leaving the gas plant. an unknown number of foreigners are being held, including possibly some americans. bp says a small number of its employees are still unaccounted for as well. david cameron spoke about the crisis. listen. >> i'm sure the whole house will share my disgust at this brutal

and savage terrorist attack unfolding in algeria. our thoughts and prayers are with those caught up in the incident with their families who are waiting anxiously for news and with those who have already lost loved ones. >> matthew chance joins us from london with the latest details. we are hearing some hostages held in algeria disguised themselves in order to escape. can you share details you may know about that? >> this comes from one of the catering companies that operated that bp led gas plant in the remote desert in algeria. their company saying -- giving us detail on what happened when the militants broke into the compound, started taking people hostage. they divided the workers up to two groups. foreigners, expatriates and local algerians who they treated very differently and according to the company spokesperson, some employees described themselves as locals in order to

join that more favorably treated group. we also have details from some people who have escaped from this crisis in algeria, about the conditions in which they were kept. one hostage, joint irish and british citizen, former hostage esca escaped, in fact, his brother said he been made to sleep with plastic explosives tieded round his neck, with duct tape over his mouth and feet tied together as well. they were in the process of being transferred to another locations, when the algerian military intervened and carried out the raid to try and free the hostages. >> u.s. defense secretary leon panetta addressed the situation today. what can you tell us about that today? britain and the united states was unaware the raid was actually happening? >> that's one sort of slightly disturbing aspect of this. david cameron, part of the statement he made, was he was in

almost constant contact with algerian prime minister. spoke with him four dimes in the day leading up to the situation to free the hostages. coordinating with the leaders of other countries involved and the united states among them. and david cameron has been talking to president obama about probably sharing their confusion about the situation on the ground, and that very remote part of algeria. leon pan etta has come out, saying he and the rest of the defense department is working around the clock to bring the situation to a happy ending. >> and matthew, another question, and i apologize if you already addressed it, but i'm trying to read the latest details coming out. do we know the number of americans? any clarity on that? >> no, we don't is the short answer to that. we know that there are 41 people according to militants held hostage, and a good number from

britain, japan, and the united states as well. exact figures are very hard to come by at the moment. >> yeah, that's actually one of the more disturbing details, right? we don't have the actual information and the united states doesn't know. matthew chance live in london. one more thing here. i am uncertain whether or not there was clarity on that a small number of bp employees unaccounted for at that gas plant in algeria. the company releasing the statement as of friday. three flights have left algeria to bring workers home and a fourth is expected to leave today. that is the latest information coming from bp who owns that gas plant. >> fluid situation. still learning so much about what's happening there. >> so much we don't know. 42 minutes past the hour. scary stuff. another shark attack in hawaii. a surfer in his 40s attacked by what's believed to be a 15-foot tiger shark, nearly biting off his leg and hahn. transported to the north hawaii community hospital for

treatment. his condition is not currently known. pauline phillips left her mark on millions of american by dispensing common sense advice, better known by the pen name abigail van buren and wrote the column dear abby. phillips died yesterday at the age of 94. she battled alzheimer's for years. >> her sister, ann landers. the nra under attack for an ad that attacks president owe became skra and worse, makes reference to his children. and new jersey governor chris christie says the gun lobby should never have gone there. >> don't be dragging children into this. it demeans them and makes them less of a valid trusted source of information on the real issues. >> the nra ad calls the president an elitist hypocrite

of opposing the idea of armed guards in every school when his own kids are protected by armed guards. 43 minutes past the hour. rock star ozzy osborne recovering after the fire department called to his house. find out what happened, coming up next. counting down to inauguration day. live to washington for a look at what's being done to get ready. at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally.

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oh, my. are we discussing lance armstrong and everything else. s soledad o'brien with more on what's ahead on "starting point." >> narcissistic personality disorder? anybody? anybody? >> you're talking about lance armstrong, right? many people didn't think lance's confession didn't go far enough. betsey andreu, who testified that he was doping, we'll talk to her. and john eustice and niccole cook with us as well. and also following the hostage situation in algeria, americans could be possibly among those being held. we'll have the latest on the

assault that was launched against the militant captors and what happened. the aftermath in a live report straight ahead. and taking a stand against child trafficking. angie harmon, how she is teaming up with unicef. straight ahead, stay with us. top of the hour. >> attention "law & order" fans. 48 minutes past the hour. police have arrested the man who brutally attacked a woman on a philadelphia subway platform, throwing her onto the tracks. we want to warn you here, the video you are about to see may be difficult to watch. children are around, you may want to move them from the tv set. the affiliate, pvpi says the man asked for a lighter tuesday afternoon, momentarily backed off and then came at her, punching the 23-year-old woman, grabbing her by the ankle and throwing her onto the subway tracks. the woman climbed out on her own, and she only suffered bumps and bruises.

thankfully, she is okay. six months after a massacre that left 12 people dead and 53 wounded, the movie theater in aurora, colorado will, reopen today. a private remembrance ceremony held last night. some boycotted the event, saying it was insensitive to reopen the theater at all. body of a chicago lottery winner will be exhumed today. 46-year-old aruj khan died last summer, a month after he won a million dollar jackpot. at first it was thought he died of natural causes, but it became a murder mise mystery when a de amount of cyanide was found. and ozzy osborne injured. ozzy and his wife sharon forgot to put out candles when they went to bed. he singed his hair and eyebrows

when he tried to put out flames. sharon apologized and thanked the five gorgeous fire flighters. >> of course she would add gorgeous. 49 minutes past the hour. coming up, while most of america will be off, people in washington will be pulling in extra shifts for inauguration day on monday. we'll have a live report, just ahead.

welcome back. it is 52 minutes past the hour. and good morning, washington, d.c. it will be a very busy weekend for all of you there. final preparations and rehearsals under way for president barack obama's inauguration to a second term.

a public oath of office monday at noon after taking the official one on sunday. hundreds of thousands of people are expected to turn out. athena jones in washington for thus morning with the very latest. good morning. what events can we look forward to? >> reporter: good morning. you mentioned the two key ones. public service events across the country, including right here on the mall. this is the place we'll see on monday, hundreds of thousands of people coming out for that public swearing in ceremony. but as you mixed, you will have the national day of service tomorrow, and on sunday, the official swearing in. the constitutionally mandated day. and on monday, date starts off with a visit from the president and first lady to st. john's church, across the park. lafayette park from the white house. a church service there. and then come here for the swearing in. performances by people like beyonce, and the president is planning to be sworn in using martin luther king jr.'s

traveling bible and a bible that would belong to president abraham lincoln on loan from the library of congress. and a luncheon in statuary hall. it doesn't all end with the balances on monday night. on tuesday, a prayer service. several days ahead of us, several very busy days. a lot of folks asking about the weather. as of right now, the forecast for monday is a low of 25 and a high of 40, which is around about the average it's been on january 20th for the past several inaugurations. >> at least it's constent. we know we need to bundle up. during the inauguration last time. a lot of talk about mrs. obama and sasha, malia, what they are wearing. we don't know what they are wearing, but a lot being said about a new hair style sported by mrs. obama. >> that's right.

yesterday was mrs. obama's 49th birthday and they tweeted a picture of mrs. obama with a new haircut. bangs now. we don't know what she is wearing, but what her hair looks like. we will see if it starts any trends. >> berman wants a full frontal of the bangs so he can see what they looked like. that was kind of a side-view. >> that's what i said. we'll get some views. >> all right. athena jones. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> bangsgate. the latest scandal to hit washington. stay with cnn for live coverage. and "either start" will be live from washington at 5:00 eastern. today's best advice from a powerful republican in congress, coming up. >> later, breaking down lance armstrong's confession and

explanation to oprah. soledad talking to betsey andreu, who testified that armstrong was doping. former cycling champion john eustice, and former cyclist, niccole cook. ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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we wrap it up with best advice. man, do we need it. >> how about it, christie? >> we asked peter king. >> one, stay loyal to your friends, no matter what, and secretarily, never back down in a fight. if you belief you are right, don't quit. it's okay to lose, but it's never okay to quit.

and, you know, quitting just isn't for real people. you have to keep the fight going, if you lose you lose, but don't quit. >> he lives that advice. have you heard him when he gets mad. >> heard the whole fight over sandy relief package, you know he lives by that advice. >> "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. our "starting point," lying and cheating, years of denials, lance armstrong comes clean and admits to oprah winfrey he used performance-enhancing drugs to win all seven of his tour de france titles. >> did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes. >> is it enough? what about all of the stuff he left out? we'll examine his confession point by point. and john eustice and niccole cook and